Moon Aura

The apartment complex that contains the apartment whose address I currently use as my mailing address also contains a pool area, which in turn contains a swimming pool (and a hot tub). During the spring and summer months last year, I used to go there as often as I could to enjoy the amenities that the pool area had to offer: swimming, cool water, hot water, a great downtown view, and the occasional pretty girl(s) dressed in swimsuit(s) with whom I frequently engaged in introductory, frivolous, pool-style conversations with topics such as where were we from, what did we "do", how long had we lived there, how long could we hold our breaths, alcohol, hookah, and Austin nightclubs.

But as Summer fell and Fall rose, it seemed that the pool was not being well taken care of. One day I went to swim, I could taste a bitter chemical taste in the water. (And some people have asked "well, why did you taste it?". And in case you were wondering too, it's just common to get some water in your mouth while swimming - it becomes natural when immersing your face in the water all the time) It was a terrible taste, but it was slight at first, so I thought I could still swim every now and again, ignoring the taste. But it got stronger. And stronger. And stronger. And stronger. And then I just decided I couldn't do it anymore. I always tried to ignore it, but eventually my body reacted to the taste with discomfort and nausea, so I sadly decided not to go swimming there anymore until the pool was not bitter-tasting anymore.

And the year passed by. And every now and again I would walk into the pool area and put a handful of water into my mouth to taste it. And it kept on tasting bitter and chemical, again, and again, and again. Until last Saturday. Last Saturday night, I thought I'd give it another try and, whoopee! hurrah!, the pool's water didn't taste bitter anymore! I was so excited! I went to my apartment, and thought about going to swim right then and there, but it was already after 2000 (hours), so I procrastinated my swimming until the next day.

The next day (Sunday), I slept until early afternoon and procrastinated so much on my daily activities (by activities including playing and finishing the XBox Kung Fu Panda game, which by the way, is PRETTY GREAT!! (considering it came free with the XBox)) that it was already 2230 before I decided to give swimming another try. So I walked out dressed in shorts, t-shirt, tennis shoes, and a towel on my shoulder, ready to enjoy the pleasure of swimming once again. But as I was walking towards the pool, I realized that the current winter weather might hinder my idea of swimming that night being pleasant.

So I walked to the hot tub and took off my shirt and shoes. The air temperature must've been around 40F, 45F tops, because my bare feet felt hurt, stung by the cold rock pathway under it. I quickly got into the hot tub and relaxed, trying to get ready for the cold swimming session ahead. After I was wet enough, I got out of the hot tub, and stepped into a two-feet depth of swimming pool water. It felt very cold, but tolerable, so I went in two more feet. Several parts of my body were hurting by now, but I decided I could live with it once I got warmed up by swimming. And then I plunged into the water, and then I felt it - my feet hurt so much that they seemed to go numb, my fingers felt frozen, and my brain went into survival mode. I swam one 15-m length of the pool and hurriedly got out, my feet stinging like crazy when they touched the floor, and my testicles cramped up tight, as if snuggling to get warm. I thought "I can't swim too much if I feel like this", but I decided to give it another try. So I walked around the pool and tried again. And again all the hurting, freezing, numbing sensations came back. So then I sadly decided to leave the pool area and come back when the weather and water became warmer.

On my way back to the apartment, I looked up at the sky. It was CLEAR. I saw no clouds, only dozens of stars of differing colors and sizes, and a big, round, silver, bright, beautiful moon. The moon looked awesome (By the way, I would like to start using aweful as a word. I understand awful has negative connotations associated with it, so I'm defining aweful as an adjective that describes something which does not only deserve and produce some awe (as awesome describes), but that deserves and produces all possible awe! (In that context, we should also refrain from saying things like somewhat useful, but that's another story)). I could clearly see its bare "continents" and dry "seas", and several silver halos surrounded it with quiet magnificence. Though humid and cold, I kept on watching. It was so pretty and calm - the great shining silver moon "floating" so high up in the "sky".

Then the halos reminded me of a visual effect I sometimes like to produce on objects around me. Looking at an object somewhat unfocusedly for a while, I may begin to see a trace of color around the object, which I like to think of as being the "aura" of the object, but could very well only be an obscure (for me) optical effect that acts on the edges of objects, and that's visible only when observing the object closely (and they could also happen to be the same thing). So I did that with the moon. I stared at it for a while and focused on the edges, and tried to achieve the same effect. Sure enough, after a while, I saw the moon's "aura" appear, right beside the moon's edges. It was of a beautiful intense night blue, and the moon itself had blurred to a shining white ball with almost unnoticeable irregularities on its surface. It was quite a beautiful color, so I continued watching, playing with the focus a little bit here and there, and as I refocused in a certain way, I saw the moon's aura change. It became bright shining violet. This aura seemed thicker and stronger than the blue one, but there was still a thin trace of the same intense blue inside the new violet halo. It was beautiful. And then I noticed the moon itself, right in the middle. It now didn't seem as solid as before, but it was just a big white shining circle, and on the surface I saw 3 internal tangent ellipses, concentric with the circle, radially symettrical, so that it resembled a great white shining atom, its brilliance slightly stirring as if alive. (Will post drawing when I manage to draw something similar to what I saw)

For some reason, looking at the moon made me want to try to swim in the pool again. And so I plunged into the water again. And it was still just as cold, and it felt just about as painful as before. I decided three times was enough for one night and went back to my apartment to warm up.

Please, please, if you read this, try to look at the moon this way. Ignore the cold if any - you won't regret it. It is GREAT!!! GREAT. GREAT. COMPLETELY AWEFUL. Now I want to look at the moon every night to see how its aura changes as its phase changes too. I'd like to do the same with the sun too, but I'm pretty sure I would sustain permanent eye damage if I did. And can't do it with other stars - they already look too small to try to find a recognizable border around them (although I have recently seen stars that twinkle between yellowish and red, bluish, and sometimes even green. Once I saw a star that was so multicolored that I thought it wasn't even a star. But sure enough, it stayed there for at least 30 minutes, so I can't think of what else it was). But yeah, the night sky can be much more entertaining and pretty than it may seem at a glance.